Humans store about 1.5 megabytes of information during language acquisition
Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: We introduce theory-neutral estimates of the amount of information learners possess about how language works. We provide estimates at several levels of linguistic analysis: phonemes, wordforms, lexical semantics, word frequency and syntax. Our best guess is that the average English-speaking adult has learned 12.5 million bits of information, the majority of which is lexical semantics. Interestingly, very little of this information is syntactic, even in our upper bound analyses. Generally, our results suggest that learners possess remarkable inferential mechanisms capable of extracting, on average, nearly 2000 bits of information about how language works each day for 18 years.
Source: Royal Society Open Science
DOI: 10.1098/rsos.181393
Authors: Francis Mollica, Steven T. Piantadosi
Institutions: University of Rochester, University of California, Berkeley
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,471
OpenAlex ID: W2925135347